Field of the Disclosure
This application generally related to load balancing and more specifically to load balancing in a link aggregation (LAG).
Background Art
Link aggregation (LAG) is a method of logically bundling two or more physical links to form one logical link. The “logical link” or “aggregated link” formed by a LAG can be considered to have the sum bandwidth or a bandwidth close to the sum bandwidth of the individual links that are bundled together into a link aggregation.
Link aggregations (LAGs) are also typically deployed in Ethernet switches in Information Technology (IT) networks. LAGs allow a set of Ethernet links to be aggregated into a single logical bundle such that the aggregate (i.e. the LAG) appears as a single logical port at each end of the LAG. Link aggregations offer advantages such as high capacity, since the LAG offers a single link of much greater bandwidth capacity than each individual link. Link aggregations allows for redundancy since if a physical member link fails then traffic can be automatically be moved to active links while remaining on the same logical link.
Ethernet is increasingly deployed in non-traditional networking scenarios. One such example is in Automotive Infotainment in which a small Ethernet network is used to carry content such as radio, Digital Video Disk (DVD) data, audio data, and output of a rear-facing camera. The network traffic of such networks is characterized as consisting of a relatively small number of high-bandwidth flows (unlike a typical IT network, which is more likely to consist of a large number of lower-bandwidth flows). Further, for electrical reasons, in-car networks tend to be built with lower-bandwidth connections, such that bandwidth is a more scarce and valuable resource. In such an environment, standard methods of allocating flows to LAG member links can result in an inefficient and unbalanced distribution of bandwidth amongst LAG members.
The embodiments of the disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers may indicate identical or functionally similar elements. Additionally, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number may identify the drawing in which the reference number first appears